1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cash dispenser incorporated in various cash handling apparatuses such as an automated cash depositing and dispensing machine, automated teller machine (ATM), automated cash dispensing machine, etc., which are equipped in banks, financiers or stores for executing deposit and payment or withdrawal transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In automated depositing machines such as above-mentioned ATM, there is provided a temporary bill collection station (ESCROW) in which bills inserted into the machine for deposit are stored temporarily until the deposit transaction has been completed. This is because all the inserted bills should be returned to the customer in case the customer cancels the current deposit transaction after he has inserted bills into the machine, or the machine is out of order for some reason or other during deposit transaction.
The above-mentioned temporary bill collection station has recently been provided even in cash dispensers. An example of these cash dispensers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,455 by Richard C. Hickey. The reason why such a temporary bill collection station is necessary is as follows: In case some troubles or malfunctions occur in bill carrier paths for carrying bills from cash containers to a cash discharge outlet or other sections, it is required to collect bills already carried from the cash containers before discharging the bills for the customer through the discharge outlet slot. Further, it is necessary to discharge bills for the customer after the amount and the kind of money specified by the customer have been confirmed. The assumption is made that in discharging ten bills for instance, a trouble occurs while the seventh bill are being carried within the machine after six bills have already been discharged for the customer. In this case, the way to handle the already-discharged six bills is difficult and complicated. Since the customer demands ten bills, the six bills are not sufficient. However, it is impossible to continue the payment transaction before the trouble is perfectly removed.
Therefore, the above-mentioned trouble or disadvantages can be eliminated when the specified bills are once stacked at the temporary bill collection station and then discharged in a lump for the customer after the accumulation or collection of specified amount and kind of money has been confirmed. Even if some trouble occurs while bills are being carried to the temporary bill collection station, there exists no special problems because bills are not yet discharged to the customer.
By the way, while bills are being carried from the cash containers to the temporary bill collection station, various bill inspections are required in many cases. There inspections are to check whether two or more bills are superposed, or whether the specified kinds of money are carried or whether the carried bills are appropriate for customer in quality (no damage is present), etc.
In the prior-art bill dispenser as described above, however, there exist shortcomings shch that when some unacceptable bills are detected, the cash payment transaction takes much time, thus reducing the efficiency in cash handling time and cash availability. The basic problems are: although a temporary bill collection station classified according to the kind of bills is provided between a cash container and a bill discharge outlet, in the case where an unacceptable bill is detected during the above bill inspection processes after some acceptable bills have already been stacked at the temporary bill collection station, it is necessary to move all the already-stacked acceptable bills once into the reject container together with this single unacceptable bill. Thereafter, the same operation of stacking bills at the collection station should be repeated while returning to the start.